August
7, 2003

Council
business—

Council
considers selling
rentals

Village Council indicated
on Monday that it is willing to sell one of the Village’s residential
rental properties to the tenants. Council also said that it wanted to
find a legal way to sell its other rental property.

Earlier this year
Council agreed to sell the Village’s two residential rental properties,
a move that followed a recommendation from the ad hoc blue ribbon finance
committee.

The committee, which
studied the Village’s budget and capital improvement needs, released
a lengthy report in January on ways the Village could cut costs and raise
revenue. Selling the rental properties was one way the committee said
the Village could raise cash to fund capital projects.

At Council’s
meeting Aug. 4, Village Manager Rob Hillard reported that, based on information
provided by Village Solicitor John Chambers, the Village could sell the
Village’s property at 1274 State Route 343 in Miami Township to
the tenants, Jamie Sharp and J.J. Yates, with the appropriate legislation
and if the house was sold at fair market value. Sharp and Yates, who have
rented the house for 11 years, told Council on Monday that they are interested
in buying the property.

An appraisal of the
property by Sheridan & Associates of Cedarville estimated the property’s
value is $115,000. Sharp and Yates said that the appraisal was high. The
Greene County auditor’s office appraised the property at $41,490.

Council member Joan
Horn said that she “would like to see us go ahead” with the
sale of the house.

While Council wants
to sell its other rental property, 1140 State Route 343, it may not be
able to. The property, located in Miami Township, also includes the Village
public works garage and is bordered on farmland that the Village owns
but is controlled with a conservation easement. The Miami Township Zoning
Code requires a three-acre minimum for lot splits, making it difficult
to create a new parcel for the house.

Council said that
it would ask Tecumseh Land Trust, which holds the conservation easement
on the Sutton Farm, about amending the easement to allow the Village to
create a new parcel so it could sell the house.

The house’s
tenant, Terry Cox, the Village parks and recreation director, said that
he and his family may be interested in purchasing the house. If they are
not, he said, they would like to be able to rent the house for one or
two more years, which, he said, would give them time to “move on.”

Council president
Tony Arnett told Cox, “It was Council’s intention to relieve
itself of the property, but we didn’t want to create an undue hardship
for the tenants.”

Sheridan appraised
the property at $185,000, while the Greene County auditor lists the parcel’s
appraised value at $105,950.

Several Council members
said that they thought Sheridan’s appraisals were high. Council
agreed to get a second appraisal on both properties before taking further
action.

* * *

In other
Council business:
• During the “citizens concerns” portion of the meeting,
Peggy Erskine reported that two weeks ago the stream that runs behind
her house on Northwood Drive severely flooded her backyard. She said that
she was “extremely frustrated” that Council had not set aside
part of the Village-owned Glass Farm for future use as a retention basin.

Building a basin
on the farm is viewed as one possible way to curb flooding that occurs
on the north end of town, when water in an unnamed creek that runs through
the Glass Farm spills over its banks.

Council member Joan
Horn volunteered to survey other homeowners in that neighborhood to determine
who else has a problem with flooding.

• Council approved
4–0 the first reading of an ordinance reducing to two years the
terms of members of the Village Human Relations Commission. Currently,
commission members serve four-year terms. Council member Denise Swinger
was absent.

Horn, who serves
as Council’s representative on the commission, recommended the action
after HRC members said it would strengthen the pool of candidates who
apply for the board. A second reading and public hearing on the measure
will take place at Council’s next meeting, Aug. 18.

• Council approved
4–0 a resolution formally stating from what funds the Village pays
off its debt on the remodeling of the Bryan Community Center. The multi-fund,
or general fund, and the parks fund pay 37.5 percent of the bond, and
the electric fund pays 25 percent. Though the Village has used this formula
since 1998, it never formalized it through legislation.

• Hillard presented
a quarterly financial report that showed that revenue and expenditures
are generally meeting projections in this year’s Village budget.

• Council agreed
for now not to place on the November ballot an initiative that would ask
voters for the authority to tax earnings from out-of-state corporations.
The Ohio Legislature approved a measure requiring Ohio municipalities
to ask voters for permission to collect such taxes. Council said it wanted
more information on the issue from Village Solicitor Chambers.

To get the question
on the ballot, Council would have to pass an ordinance at its meeting
Aug. 18. It is unclear whether the tax issue would financially affect
the Village.

• Hillard introduced
a survey the Village Solid Waste Task Force will distribute to local residents
and businesses to gauge the community’s opinion about the annual
brush pickup, spring cleanup and the used motor oil station at the Bryan
Center. Council suspended the brush pickup and spring cleanup this year
for financial reasons.

The survey will be
distributed by next week with the Village’s 2002 annual report.
Responses to the survey are due by Sept. 1.

• Council agreed
to appoint Andrew Cook to the Village Environmental Commission. His term
expires on March 31, 2004. At its last meeting, July 21, Council appointed
Matt Reed to the commission. His term expires at the end of 2004.